Oilers Gameday vs Washington: Make It Two!

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After finally scoring more than 3 goals in a game, and winning a game in regulation against a conference opponent, the Oilers are back in action tonight against the Washington Capitals. 

The Caps are struggling a bit in the early part of the season (4-5-1), but they’ve got a good team and should be a pretty good challenge for the Oilers (who are sitting at 3-5-1 thus far). 

Keys to the Game

Edmonton

  • Score first.
  • For real, keep pushing. Against Dallas, they didn’t get down on themselves and were able to get the 2 points. It was nice to see. 

Washington

  • Score first and don’t let the Oilers back into it.
  • Force the Oilers to take penalties; their PK is pretty weak (and allowed 3 goals on Thursday). 

Players to Watch

Edmonton

  • Connor does fun hockey things and is fun to watch. 
  • Keep an eye on RNH, as he’s looking for his 100th NHL goal. 

Washington 

  • Alex Ovechkin is obviously fun to watch. He’s scored a million goals already, and he’s dangerous pretty much whenever he touches the puck. 
  • Braden Holtby is a good goaltender. He also has a real nice hair flip before he puts his mask on. 

Projected Lineups

Edmonton

Patrick Maroon – Connor McDavid – Leon Draisaitl

Milan Lucic – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Mark Letestu

Drake Caggiula – Ryan Strome – Zack Kassian

Jussi Jokinen – Jujhar Khaira – Anton Slepyshev

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson

Kris Russell – Matt Benning

Darnell Nurse – Eric Gryba

Cam Talbot

Washington

Jakub Vrana – Nicklas Backstrom – TJ Oshie

Alex Ovechkin – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Devante Smith-Pelley

Chandler Stephenson – Lars Eller – Tom Wilson

Anthony Peluso – Jay Beagle – Alex Chiasson

Christian Djoos – John Carlson

Dmitri Orlov – Taylor Chorney

Brooks Orpik – Madison Bowey

Braden Holtby

Notes

If someone had suggested that the Oilers, after 9 games, would be 7th in the Pacific, no one would have believed them. 

They’re not a bad team by any stretch, but it’s become pretty apparent that last season’s team fell into some wicked puck (and injury) luck. It’s not yet clear if this roster is built to win in both the short and long term, but the next 10 games have the potential to make or break the season. 

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